Offspring
by orangeyhairedimmortal
Summary: Ren, Roy's son, just wants someone to understand him. He grows too fast, is too smart, and too different for anyone to handle. Between Hughes and Edward, he feels responsible for what happened. But what he doesn't know is that Edward is facing demons of his own about the existence of Ren and soon realizes he is causing more harm than good. SEQUEL TO REACTION! Rapid aging.
1. Chapter 1

**hey, i'm back with a sequel to REACTION. i feel it's too soon but i couldn't keep it from my head! enjoy!**

* * *

_You've always been a son to me. You've always made me proud. I trust you._

_Mustang it's a boy… it's a human boy…_

_Ed, you have to let him go._

The ringing in my ears won't go away and I wake up with a start. I sit up, gasping as rain pelts down outside my window. My joints hurt and I massage my thigh where the automail meets the flesh. Lightning shines on my automail arm and I notice that I still haven't cleaned my arm. There is blood still there! I gasp, falling out of the bed and scrambling to the bathroom. I turn the water on full blast, grabbing a rag and soap and begin to scrub my automail. I don't care that it will rust the metal or warp the gears, I just _have_ to get this blood off of me!

I scrub hard, watching the brown oxidized blood go down the drain when I see the sight of my blade slicing into Roy's stomach in my mind. I go to the toilet and empty my stomach there, the thought still rambling in my head. I finally empty my stomach and lay my head against the toilet, breathing hard as thunder rumbles outside. My eyes are watering from both crying and my face stretching.

I hear Fuery pad into the bathroom and sit next to me.

"Colonel here." He says, dropping something beside me.

I turn a little and see that it's the Colonel's jacket that Fuery had found. I look at Fuery as he looks at me with happy eyes, knowing that he's helping me even if I don't know myself. I reach for it and put it on, the thing swallowing me whole since he was a good two times older than I am. Even though it's big, I can still smell him and I feel like he's with me and that I didn't let him die.

I look at Fuery, looking a little silly with his human glasses on his face, but looking happy he accomplished something. Ever since he became a chimaera, he has been very sensitive to those who need it most and I appreciate that he's here with me, feeling my pain. I wish I could talk with Al about it but I just can't… I already feel guilty about what I did to him trying to bring back our mother but I don't want him to bear this pain with me. This was all my fault…

I sniffle a little when I feel something in the lining of the jacket. I reach in and pull out an envelope that is folded over. I open it and pull out something. Pictures… There are only six of them and each are labeled on the back.

The first looks like it is Mustang when he was a kid with a beautiful but quite masculine woman. He was holding up a fish to the camera, a tooth missing and the woman smoking a pipe very stoically behind him.

_Me, 7, and Auntie C_

The next is of him and Hughes and Hawkeye. It must have been before or during the Ishvalan War because Roy's hair is very short, Hughes has no beard, and Hawkeye's hair is cut incredibly short. They all look tired except for Hughes, who is grinning ear to ear as he has one arm around Roy and one arm around Hawkeye.

_Me, 22, Maes, and Riza. End of Ishvalan War._

Next is a picture of just him using flame alchemy where someone must have snapped a picture of him doing it during certification. The next picture was of Hawkeye in normal clothing sitting on a couch with her legs propped up and a mug in her hand.

_If Riza knew I had this, she would kill me. I snapped this without her knowing. I love her so much but she will never know. I guess being comrades is as close as we will be._

I turn to Fuery, who has been looking with me.

"I knew he loved her."

"Fuery knows." He says with a pant and I can see the human side of him making connects with the pictures. "Riza like him too."

The next picture was a group picture of everyone that was under him with them all named. It even had me on there as NOT PICTURED . The last picture though, made me freeze. He had somehow gotten a picture of Al and I while I was smiling big at Al.

_Alphonse Elric, possibly 13, and Edward Elric, possibly 14. The youngest under my direction. I feel like I'm their dad or something since they get in so much trouble. I guess this will be the only children I have though, so I can't say being like a father is too bad._

I sniffle at the note because he wasn't lying to me when he said what he did. He really did feel like a father to us. I felt my eyes begin to water again as I remember that I just killed him. He's dead. I'll never see him again.

I can't sleep after being sick so I brush my teeth and decide that now is a good a time as any to write the report for the Fuhrer since he's so adamant about having it. I get started on it right away.

* * *

"Ed… Edward? Wake up." I open my eyes and sit up, looking at Al. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really…"

"Oh good, you wrote it all out. Now you don't have to deal with the Fuhrer."

"Yeah. Where's the baby?"

"You told me to take it to Mr. Hughes, remember?"

"Oh… Yeah, sorry I did. Is he okay?"

"Ren's fine."

"Ren?"

"Mr. Hughes and I agreed on the name. R for Roy, E for Edward and N because he changed the M I wanted to use for Maes. His middle name is Alphonse because he said I should be included." He says with a nod of his head.

I smile at him and think about it for a moment. Ren Alphonse Mustang seems like a good name for him. I think the Colonel would have liked it.

"Where did you get this jacket?" Al asks.

"Fuery found it under the bed. The Colonel must have not put it away or something. I found these pictures in them; wanna look?"

I hand the pictures to Al and he looks at them, reading the backs. He laughs a little at one and then he stops at the one we're on.

"I remember this day. This wasn't too long ago actually." He says, putting them on the table again. "He really did love us…"

"Yeah, which is more than what our real father did for us. At least Mustang was there to keep us in line and care about us, unlike that dirty rotten bastard that left us." I say, clenching my fist.

"Brother…"

"I don't know why you defend him so much, Al; you barely knew him."

"You barely knew him too!"

"But I remember him a lot better than you and let me tell you, if I had to pick Mustang or that bastard, I would pick the Colonel Bastard any day of the week."

The phone rings and Al announces that he will go down and get it as I sigh and scoot away from the desk to go to the closet. I open it up and find mostly military uniforms, some white shirts, black pants, and a coat. I reach back and grab it, sniffing it and smelling the Colonel distinctly. I put it on but it is about twenty feet longer than I am. I frown and curse life for making me short when I hear Al clanging up the stairs.

"Ed! We have to go to Mr. Hughes house! They said something is wrong with Ren."

"Fuery come?" Fuery asks, standing up and wagging his tail.

"Yeah, I don't see why not. Stay with us though."

Fuery has relearned to salute in his own dog way by sitting straight as a board and putting his paw on his forehead. It's kind of cute and he follows us to the door.

* * *

When we get to Hughes house, I hear a scream and Hughes is saying something. I knock on the door and it flies open.

"Oh thank god! Edward, you have to stop it!"

"Stop what?"

"That _thing_ that you gave my husband!" Mrs. Hughes yells as she holds Elysia.

"What do you mean?" Al asks.

They just point to another room and Fuery stays behind as Al and I head over there. There is a giggle, a clap, and something that sounds like it is catching fire. I walk in and the bedroom is just a charred mess with someone in the middle.

"What is going on in here?"

The little thing turns at the sound of my voice and I blink, recognizing the eyes. It's the baby… or _was_. Alphonse gasps behind me as the little boy's face brightens.

"Head!" he says, running to Al as Al scoops him up.

As soon as he's close to Al's head, he grabs the tassel on the back and yanks his head off.

"Hey!"

The little boy turns to me and grins bright, reaching for me. Al lets him down and he runs to me, wrapping his arms around me.

"Safe!" He lets go and holds out his hands to me to hold him.

I kneel to him instead and look around again.

"Did you do all of this?"

He nods enthusiastically. "Fire!"

"How? That's the hardest alchemy to do…"

"Clap!" he says, clapping his hands together.

His hands light up and flames extend from his hands toward a drapes. Alphonse blocks it with his own alchemy and I grab the boy's hands.

"No! Fire is bad!" He looks at me with confusion and I shake my head. "No."

"Oh… Mommy and Daddy are scared of me now..."

"Who are you?"

"Ren. My name is Ren, who are you?"

* * *

**so what's this?**


	2. Chapter 2

I look at the toddler as he stares at me with strange eyes. He acted like he had known me just a moment ago and now he doesn't remember me enough to know my name? I just stare at him as he stares at Al and I when Al kneels down and holds out his hand.

"Come here for a second." Ren walks to him, not seeming afraid at all of Al's empty armor. "I'm Alphonse Elric and this is my older brother, Edward."

"Ed… Al…" The kid gasps. "Uncle Al and Uncle Ed!" He turns to Hughes and grins wide. "Daddy, look!"

Hughes looks like he is in complete shock while Mrs. Hughes looks completely disgusted. Ren's smile fades as he looks back at us.

"I'm scary…"

"You're not scary." Al says, picking him up. "You're just… a little different from what we've seen. But don't worry, we'll figure it out. Um… Mr. Hughes, do you want us to take him back?"

The two just nod as Al carries Ren away and I follow behind him.

Once we reach the outside, I look at Al in complete confusion.

"Al, what the hell?"

"Brother! Not in front of the baby."

"I'm not a baby." Ren says with a frown.

"Al, what's going on?"

"I recognize the eyes. This is the Colonel's son, the one you saved." He set Ren down and I look at him as he looks at me. "Ren had strange looking eyes and his look just like is. Brother, there is something wrong and that's why he's like this. We need to get him to a doctor quick."

I look at Ren and have to agree with Al. If this is indeed the baby that I had gotten from the Colonel, then there is no way in Hell that there should be a boy who looks about two looking at me with intellectual eyes like Ren is doing now. Al is right, something is wrong.

"Well… what are we going to do?"

"We can wait until after the Colonel's funeral to have anything done. It's not too far away and we don't need anything more to happen."

"Yeah… yeah…" I say, pushing my hand through my hair.

Ren looks at the two of us and then reaches out to touch my jacket.

"My blanky." He looks into my eyes and blinks. "This is my blanky."

I smile a little and take off my jacket, wrapping him in it. He laughs, about to clap again but I stop his hands.

"No. You can't clap until we know what's going on with that. No clapping, alright?"

"No clap?"

"That's right." I think for a minute. "Or snapping."

Ren turns his head. "What's that?"

"Just don't do it."

Ren nods and then holds out his arms to me with a grin.

"Hold me, Uncle Ed!"

I pick him up and he wraps his arms and legs around my body, laying his head on my shoulder.

"Uncle Ed?"

"Yes."

"I love you,"

I feel him yawn as we carry him back to the apartment and he falls asleep in my arms.

* * *

We get to the apartment and I lay Ren on the couch as he snuggles in my jacket and put my hand on my hip. I have no idea what is going on or what game is being played but it's strange. I turn to Al, who is watching Ren sleep as well.

"What are we going to do, Al? If this is really happening then what will we do? I mean, if this really what I think is going on then he'll be older than us in three month's time, dead before the year is out."

"I know. We will have to take him back to that lab because they are the ones who got all of Tucker's recent research. Mr. Hughes has access to that though so maybe we can come to some of our own conclusions."

I nod when I see Fuery coming down the stairs and I sigh.

"I wish I could turn Fuery into a man before the funeral but even though things were successful, if it actually fails, I don't want him to miss it. Is that cruel, Al?"

"Not if he wants it… Why don't you ask him?"

"I can't do that."

Fuery walks up to us and looks at Ren on the couch. He sniffs a little and turns his head.

"Colonel but not Colonel. Baby!" he says, his tail wagging.

"Shhh." Al says. "Yes… Fuery can we ask you a question?"

Fuery sits down and looks up at us to let us know he has our attention. I kneel in front of him and put his face in my hands.

"Would… would you be willing to wait? I want to make you human so bad Sergeant Fuery but I don't want to fail… I am 98% sure that you will turn back into a human but I don't want that last 2% to ruin you going to the Colonel's funeral or because of recovery time. I want you to be there as his subordinate so… will you wait?"

"Kain turn human… later?"

"I _promise_ my life on it."

Fuery looks away for a moment and then jumps onto the couch, snuggling next to Ren.

"Fuery trusts Edward."

I sigh in relief. I really am ready to change him back but I know how important the Colonel was to everyone and to have the funeral without all of his personnel there would be a taboo on his leadership.

I watch over Ren for another moment, wonder what he is.

* * *

I go to sleep with the Colonel's jacket on for some comfort when I feel someone is watching me. I open my eyes to find both Fuery and Ren staring at me. I sit up and turn the light on. Ren looks a little strange and he is holding his stomach.

"Ren…"

"I don't feel good Uncle Ed. I hurt all over."

Fuery whimpers to add to it and Ren suddenly climbs in the bed and snuggles against me.

"I like this smell. This jacket is nice." He says, sniffing the Colonel's jacket.

_Of course you would like it. He's your father that you killed._ I clap a hand over my mouth as if I've said a curse. I can't believe I thought that just now.

As if he can sense me, Ren looks up and sniffles.

"You don't like me, do you?"

"Who said that?" I ask.

"Mommy and Daddy are scared of me and you are too… I… I don't wanna be scary."

I sigh and reluctantly put my arm over him to pull him closer.

"You're not scary just… unexplainable. We'll figure it out and see if we can fix it, alright?"

"You promise?"

"Yes. I promised the Colonel I would look after you… It's the least I can do for him."

"Colonel?" Ren thinks for a moment and then sniffs my jacket. "Oh… my… real daddy?"

"Yeah, something like that."

I hear him sigh and then he is quiet, asleep in front of me with my jacket on him as he holds onto the Colonel's with one hand. I don't know what's going on but I promised the Colonel I'd keep him safe so I will.

* * *

**sorry it's so short. i promise it will build up soon. and is that ed trying to blame ren for roy's death? is spite coming up in ed's heart?**


	3. Chapter 3

I open my eyes and yawn, turning over. I come face to face with Ren but he looks different than he did last night. I sit up and look over him and see that he has grown, his clothes almost uncomfortably tight on him, and his face does not show peace at all. I look over him and think on what I can do for him. There's not much I can do until we figure out what was used on him in Tucker's experiment. Ren suddenly jerks and yells, throwing his arm at me. He punches me full in the face and I fly off the bed like I've been punched by someone twice my size.

I get up off the floor, holding my jaw as Ren looks at me with a bewildered expression.

"Uncle Ed, why are you on the floor?"

"You punched me." I say with a growl.

He flinches. "I'm sorry…"

"You grew again." Ren looks at himself. "I need to get you more clothes…"

I go to move but Ren grabs my arm.

"Uncle Ed, what's wrong with me? Why do I do this?"

"I'd have to look it up to figure it out. You need more clothes so don't move, okay?"

Ren nods and I go to find some other clothes.

* * *

~*~Ren~*~

I had a bad dream… There was lots of screaming and everything was dark but then there was lots of light and I saw Uncle Ed. I remember screaming too… There was a man with a good face… I ache though and I lay back down in Uncle Ed's bed. He seems angry at me. I think I hit him in the face.

"Ren." I sit back up and Uncle Ed looks at me with a serious expression. I think I'm in trouble. "Get up and get your clothes on. We have to go to the funeral."

He puts something on the door and I get up, waking the nice dog that talks. I like him because he's nice to me. His black tail goes back and forth as he watches me.

"Baby." He says, his ears going up.

"Hi, Doggy."

I don't know why he calls me 'baby' but I call him doggy so I guess it's okay. I look at the stuff on the thing on the door and frown. I don't know how to do this… I also have to peepee… But I think Uncle Ed will be mad at me if I say it. I swallow but I go and find Uncle Al instead, he's nicer.

He's reading paper on the couch and I go around so he sees me.

"Oh! Ren! You… you look different."

"Uncle Ed says I grewed… Uncle Al, I have to peepee."

"Oh! Ed! Brother, Ren has to use the bathroom!"

A door opens and closes and Uncle Ed comes down the stairs. He looks at me and he looks funny… I dunno why but that blue bottoms and white shirt he has on looks weird on him. He grabs my hand and drags me to the bathroom and shows me how to go.

He shows me how to wash my hands but I grab his white shirt.

"Um… I dunno how to put my stuff on. Can you help me?"

"Yeah."

He helped me get the tight stuff off and but the black stuff on. I watch him as he puts it on for me and I know that he hates me. He doesn't like me at all.

"There you go."

"I'm sorry." I say. He looks at me and I blink. "You don't like me but… I'm sorry for what I did."

Uncle Ed looks at me with a sad look and puts his hand on my head.

"I like you, Ren, I'm just sad. We have to go to a funeral… they're not fun."

"What's a funeral?"

He fixes some black thing on my neck and sighs.

"It's where we bury people who are not alive anymore. We put them in the ground… or well, in the Colonel's case, he gets a mausoleum… Lucky bastard."

"What's a bastard?"

"A word that you shouldn't say. Here, go put this on Fuery. He should be big enough to wear this without any complications."

"Who's that?"

"The dog…"

"Oh… okay!"

I run to find Fuery.

* * *

~*~Maes~*~

Gracia fixes my military uniform, putting the back of the collar down. I smile at her as she looks at me with a saddened expression. I play with the pearls around her neck for a second and she reaches up to softly kiss me on the cheek.

"Things will get better, Maes… What do you think the boys did with that… kid…"

"I don't know. Have you heard any word from Winry?"

"She said that she'll be able to make it just in time so Elysia and I will meet her at the train station so that you don't miss anything. Why do you think Edward didn't invite her?"

"You weren't there, Gracia. I'm surprised the kid even remembered himself or that he had a baby in his arms or anything. He was not exactly with it. From the way Alphonse described everything, Roy died in Ed's arms. He probably thinks that he killed Roy."

"What a horrid thought !"

"With whatever happened there, we don't really know. Even Al doesn't fully understand what happened there."

Gracia nodded and touched my cheek. "I'm going to go to the train station to wait for Winry."

* * *

~*~Alphonse~*~

I can tell that Ed is not comfortable in his military uniform but since it's a military funeral, he is required to wear it. I hope that they let Fuery in…

"Uncle Al, who died?" Ren asks at my side.

Ed doesn't say anything since he is in a daze so I answer for him.

"Colonel Mustang, your daddy."

Ren stops walking and looks up at me with a horrified look.

"What is it?"

"The face… I saw the man… He was my daddy, right?"

"I don't know, Ren. I can't see your dreams." I hold out my hand to him. "Come on."

Ren slowly walks up to me but holds out his arms.

"Pick me up…"

I do so and walk with him toward the funeral sight. I see the Lt. Colonel there and he gives me a nod and then a stare. He begins to walk over and looks at me with a bewildered look.

"Is… is that _Ren_?"

"Hi." Ren says.

"He grew." Ed provides, hands in his pockets.

"I can see that. Do you remember me?"

"You're my daddy but you don't like me." Ren says, snuggling into my armor.

The Lt. Colone's face gets a hurtful expression and he looks away.

"That's not true… Oh, um, Gracia invited someone to come."

"Oh?"

"Maes, there you are. I couldn't find you for a moment."

I look behind her and am surprised to find Winry, me and Ed's childhood friend from Risembool holding Elysia and in a black dress. Upon seeing me, Winry smiles.

"Hey, Al. Who's that?"

"This is Ren Mustang, um… the Colonel's son."

Winry makes a face, confused. Maes gives her a look that they will explain later so Winry puts on a good face and holds out her hand to Ren.

"Nice to meet you, Ren, I'm Winry Rockbell. I grew up with Ed and Al."

Ren looks at me and then grabs Winry's hand. Winry smiles and turns to talk with brother. I look at the Lt. Colonel and he motions for me to walk with him.

"We knew Ed wouldn't and you wouldn't remember to. Winry knew Mustang as well as she also knows that Ed valued Mustang. You know your brother… he won't show any emotion."

"Mm."

"Hey, guys… Chief, you're up here with us." Havoc says, walking up with his hair slicked back.

"Fuery come too."

Ed looks behind him as well as Havoc. Fuery walks up and sits, looking up at them.

"Fuery is subordinate too. Colonel like." He says, his tail wagging eagerly.

Havoc actually gives brother an angry look.

"How could you do that to him? How could you degrade him like that and even put a military jacket on him?! What kind of sick bastard are you?!" he says, pushing Brother.

Mr. Hughes grabs Havoc as Breda and Hawkeye come over to see what's going on.

"Enough."

"This doesn't change anything! He's a dog! A canine! How could you degrade him like this?! He's supposed to be a man! HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE HUMAN!"

Hawkeye smacks him firmly across the face, giving him a harsh glare.

"Calm yourself, lieutenant. The Colonel would have kicked your ass by now if you acted out like that. Fuery is like that because Ed didn't want to take any chances. He knew how important this was for him and if he had conducted the experiment and something went awry, he knew that he would never be able to live it down. Be grateful he even thought of it. You don't know what he's gone through."

"But what about _Fuery_?" he seethes. "How do you think he feels?"

"Fuery trust Ed. Ed says he turn Fuery back after grass place time." Fuery says with a nod. "Fuery trust Ed."

"Brother promised to turn him back after the funeral and Brother doesn't like about things like that. Lt. Hawkeye is right, he knew Fuery would want to be here and he didn't want something to happen."

"Good. We have that cleared up. Let's get in line." Maes says, walking away.

The military personnel leaves and Ren looks at me.

"Uncle Ed is really sad."

"Yeah… he loved him very much."

"My daddy loved him too."

"Yeah."

We stood behind the colonel's subordinates, watching the coffin come down. Brother didn't break but I noticed he never let go of Winry's hand from behind his back.

* * *

**so the funeral for roy mustang commences. i decided that roy had himself put in a masoleum so that he would be marked well. it was supposed to be his 'fuhrer spot' but oh well. i figured that winry would be there because she knew roy enough to be saddened by his death as well as be a support to ed. oh and havoc got mad because he was mad about fuery being a dog, not that he was there**

**and ren is so hard to type for! he's so childish but not at the same time. and why is he growing so quick? does ed really have a grudge against him?**


End file.
